• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

MGC Cut out the Rust!

Share this page

69MGC

69MGC

Jedi Trainee
Silver
Country flag
Offline
So the saga of the rust rotted wheel wells continues with some great progress.

First let me say that I haven't worked on the car for several weeks. Who am I kidding, months! But once I got back into the swing of it and I see some progress I am getting more excited to get the C back on the road.

I've been working on cutting out the rusted wheel well section that you've already seen and then replacing with a fabricated patch panel. Since I don't have a welder nor do I wish to purchase one and learn to weld I decided that since the section that needs replacing isn't a structural part I could use JB Weld epoxy adhesive to glue the panel in place.

If they can glue parts of a 747 together using epoxy surely my C wheel well panel will stay together.

When you look at the pictures of my progress keep in mind that I'm working with a very limited budget and a standard set of hand tools, wrenches, clippers, grinders, etc. etc.

Welding the patch panel in place may be the ideal way to fix the rust issue, but don't judge until you see the outcome. If I offend any professional body and fender guys with my weld-less panel fix I apologize and I invite you to come on down and show me the right way to do it. At your expense of course. LOL.

Wheelwell_Rocker_IMG_0297-2.jpgWheelwellCutoutRot_IMG_0303-6.jpgPatchSupport_IMG_0306-7.jpgFabricatedPatch_IMG_0311-8.jpg
 

Attachments

  • Wheelwell_Repair_IMG_0295-1.jpg
    Wheelwell_Repair_IMG_0295-1.jpg
    47.3 KB · Views: 228
quite a job! I for one am very interested in the adhesive - we have discussed it regularly but have not had conclusive evidence! Keep us posted
 
i don't see any problem using JB weld, but the use of a few pop rivets is also a very good thing. I did patch a small section of my C's floor, about an inch square. Didn't use any epoxy but I did dip the rivets with waxoyl, to prevent dissimilar metal corrosion. Nice job.
 
JPSmit said:
quite a job! I for one am very interested in the adhesive - we have discussed it regularly but have not had conclusive evidence! Keep us posted
Click to expand...

If JB Weld is as good as the claims there shouldn't be any problems with the holding strength. As I stated, since this section of the wheel well isn't structural it should hold up as planned.
 
number6 said:
i don't see any problem using JB weld, but the use of a few pop rivets is also a very good thing. I did patch a small section of my C's floor, about an inch square. Didn't use any epoxy but I did dip the rivets with waxoyl, to prevent dissimilar metal corrosion. Nice job.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll let you know if the patch fails in the next 10 years or so. The car won't see any rain or hard driving so it should last for as long as I'm around.
 
We've used adhesives to fix rotted out floor pans and patch panels. Autobody paint & supply stores have "systems" with the right epoxy. I was a skeptic until I got to do hands-on tests of the stuff. Glued up some pieces of both steel and aluminum sheet and tried to disconnect them with hammer and vise, twisted and tortured the test pieces well. The epoxy held well beyond anything "real world conditions" would do... Now our MGB has been rebuilt using it. Going on ten years ago and it still looks fine, no issues. Used SEM 39747, "Multi-purpose panel adhesive".
 
DrEntropy said:
We've used adhesives to fix rotted out floor pans and patch panels. Autobody paint & supply stores have "systems" with the right epoxy. I was a skeptic until I got to do hands-on tests of the stuff. Glued up some pieces of both steel and aluminum sheet and tried to disconnect them with hammer and vise, twisted and tortured the test pieces well. The epoxy held well beyond anything "real world conditions" would do... Now our MGB has been rebuilt using it. Going on ten years ago and it still looks fine, no issues. Used SEM 39747, "Multi-purpose panel adhesive".
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input Dr. Most guys say the only way to go is MIG weld, but I didn't have the where with all to buy a MIG unit just for some small non-support panel rust through. I can see the need if the panel is really gone, but for the small areas I have I didn't see any need.

I've always wanted to learn to weld, so maybe some day I will invest in a MIG Welder.

Good to know you have real world experience with epoxy use.

Kev
 
Having worked many years ago gluing aircraft together I will add my 2 cents. The key to this process is cleanliness. Anything that is being bonded using an adhesive must have be as clean as you can possibly get the pieces. For aircraft we used all sorts of nasty solvents to make sure that every last particle of dirt/grease/oil was removed and after that only handled the parts with cotton cloves. Also the two pieces must be as close together as possible, no air gaps.
When we tested the parts we were interested to make sure that the adhesive failed internally not between the adhesive and the part.
In the last 40 years the quality of the adhesives have improved significantly and they are more forgiving but the same rules for cleanliness still apply
 
:iagree: I tried lacquer thinner, acetone and denatured alcohol as solvents to clean the bonding surfaces of the test pieces. Didn't seem to matter which to the epoxy. Used acetone on the surfaces of the MG, figuring it was the highest evap rate of the bunch.
 
Back
Top